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FOREST SERVICE: DILIGENCE AND STEWARDSHIP

The Forest Service has rejected the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline route through the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests. The Forest Service specifically determined that the proposed route does not meet minimum requirements of initial screening criteria for special use of National Forest System lands in West Virginia and Virginia. The decision was announced in a January 19 letter to Leslie Hartz, VP for pipeline construction for Dominion Transmission, Inc.

The following is a news release by Wild Virginia, a member of the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition

Forest Service Tells Dominion That Atlantic Coast Pipeline Must Be Rerouted

The United States Forest Service in a letter to Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC, has told ACP LLC that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline must be “routed around areas where Cowknob Salamander is found.” The letter, dated January 19 and signed by Regional Foresters Kathleen Atkinson and Tony Tooke, states that the Forest Service “we have determined that the proposed route does not meet minimum requirements of initial screening criteria.”

“Such a reroute would have to avoid Shenandoah Mountain,” said Ernie Reed, Wild Virginia President, “since even the proposed drilling through Shenandoah Mountain does not fully avoid areas where salamanders are present.”

The letter also specifies that Dominion has failed to “develop and evaluate system and route alternatives that avoid Cheat Mountain and Back Allegheny Mountain in the Monongehela National Forest and Shenandoah Mountain on the George Washington National Forest.” That request was made originally made almost 6 months ago, in a July 30 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from Tom Speaks, then Forest Supervisor of the George Washington National Forest.

Today’s letter states that “Alternatives must avoid Cheat Mountain and Cow Knob salamanders and their habitats, the West Virginia Flying squirrel and its habitat, and spruce ecosystem restoration areas.” The forest service notes that these are “highly sensitive resources…of such irreplaceable character that minimization and compensation measures may not be adequate or appropriate and should be avoided.”

“Dominion has failed since day #1 to address what is perhaps its greatest obstacle, building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through sensitive national forest lands in Virginia and West Virginia,” added Reed. “This letter demonstrates that the strong position taken by the George Washington and Monongehela National Forests in protecting our natural legacy is supported by the Regional Office. It’s significance cannot be overstated.”

The earlier 57-page document pointed out numerous deficiencies, errors, and inconsistencies in documents submitted to FERC by Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC. It also required that “ACP’s discussion should clearly articulate why the project cannot reasonably be accommodated off National Forest Service (NSF) lands.” It was followed by a November 5 letter from Clyde Thompson, the Supervisor of the Monongehela National Forest, that Dominion “misrepresented…requirements for protocols and qualifications for field personnel” who carried out soil surveys. The supervisor concluded that “the Forest Service cannot use these surveys to evaluate project effects on National Forest Service Lands” and recommended that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission “not utilize data conducted to date.”

“The National Forest is a roadblock that Dominion may not be able to surmount,” Reed concluded.

Trenching had been completed when this photo was taken on August 5th, 2018. FERC allowed Dominion to string pipe in this and other sections of the right-of-way corridor during the next week - despite a court order voiding required permits. FERC has also approved continued work to insall the pipe in the trench.

Forest Fragmentation and the ACPThe Atlantic Coast Pipeline would pass through areas of outstanding biodiversity in Virginia and West Virginia, fragmenting core forests and threatening species that depend on interior forest habitat.

Atlantic Coast Pipeline

The proposed pipeline will cross the central Allegheny Highlands, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the adjacent valleys. It will cut through 30 miles of national forest and cross numerous rivers, streams, and wetlands. This area represents the heart of the remaining wild landscape in the eastern United States, and it is a major biodiversity refugium that can only increase in rarity and importance.

The proposed pipeline will be 42 inches in diameter, requiring excavation of an 8 to 12-foot-deep trench and the bulldozing of a 125-foot-wide construction corridor straight up and down multiple steep-sided forested mountains. It will require construction of heavy-duty transport roads and staging areas for large earth-moving equipment and pipeline assembly. It will require blasting through bedrock, and excavation through streams and wetlands. It will require construction across unstable and hydrologically sensitive karst terrain.

Pipeline construction on this scale, across this type of steep, well-watered, forested mountain landscape, is unprecedented.

It will be impossible to avoid degradation of water resources, including heavy sedimentation of streams, alteration of runoff patterns and stream channels, disturbance of groundwater flow, and damage to springs and water supplies.

It will be impossible to avoid fragmentation and degradation of intact, high-integrity forests, including habitat for threatened and endangered species and ecosystem restoration areas.